The ideal body fat pinch test on stomach

With the fitness business booming nowadays, the public is constantly exposed to print and broadcast advertisements on weight loss products. Almost everybody wants to lose weight and seeks for solutions on how to get rid of stomach fat. Even those who are within the normal weight range often feel that they need to lose weight because of the bombardment of stars clad in bikinis and thongs showing off their flat, shapely bellies. Yes, the weight loss craze is in the air.

However, not all of us are in need of weight loss. Before deciding to enroll in a weight loss program or before trying on a new weight loss diet or exercise, you need to ask yourself, “Am I fat? Do I need to lose weight?”

This is where fat measurement methods come in. they act as aids in determining whether a person needs to lose weight, or whether he or she just needs to maintain that weight or whether they should gain weight. There is common perception that the waistline is synonymous to being overweight and being of normal weight. Actually, waistline measurement is not an accurate estimate of the ideal body weight of a person or of his or her fat content.

As numerous as the products for weight loss are the products for measuring body fat. Indeed, there are many products being marketed to the general public nowadays which attempt to measure fat, such as the body fat analyzer. However, this article will focus more on an effective method of measuring body fat, that is, through the use of the fat pinch test.

The body fat pinch test on the stomach is a method of estimation of body fat by assessing skin fold thickness on the stomach. We know that fat in the abdomen serves its purpose for insulation, however many of us do not realize its value as a tool to measure obesity. Once you pinch the abdomen, what you pinch is a layer of fat being sandwich by skin, not the muscle. If you pinch your own abdomen and the result is more than one-half inch of fat which separates your thumb and forefinger, then you have too much fat and you should reduce. This is just a very simple test for determining whether you need to lose weight or not.

The abdominal fat pinch test is more accurate with the use of calipers. A caliper is a device which pinches the skin and measures the amount of fat in between it. Usually, the abdominal fat pinch test using a caliper is done by a trained professional. A vertical pinch is done 5 cm from the umbilicus to the right side. Then the calipers are applied 1 cm below and at right angles to the pinch and a reading in millimeters is taken two seconds later. The mean of the measurements is taken.

The skin fold calipers being used should be calibrated before use. The measurements may vary from one examiner to another. The results of the measurements should not be converted to percent body fat in order to avoid errors. Here is a table of guidelines for the skin fold test.

		excellent	good	average	below average	poor
Normal	Male	60-80	81-90	91-110	111-150	150+
Normal	Female	70-90	91-100	101-120	121-150	150+
Athletic	Male	40-60	61-80	81-100	101-130	130+
Athletic	Female	50-70	71-85	86-110	111-130	130+

For more accurate results, it is recommended that only one person should do measurement of the fat pinch test. There arte a lot of calipers available in the market nowadays, ranging from the manual caliper to the electronic and digital ones. However, they are not accurate measurements of the percentage of the body fat stores but is useful in monitoring your progress during your diet and exercise regimen.